The traditional method of dealing with a service related business has been to interact with the employees during the company's business hours to complete the service transaction. This interaction can be tedious and can result in the customer having to be inconvenienced by the company's specific operating hours, possibly having to wait to be helped, wait while repair is completed or be delayed because a knowledgeable enough employee is not immediately available during the service transaction. It can be especially inconvenient when the service simply requires its customer to drop-off or pick-up the items to be repaired, returned, or exchanged and the nature of the service to be effectively communicated. By removing the face to face encounter of the customer and employee from the service side of these routine service drop-offs and pick-ups, and instead providing an automated notification communication link between the customer and service provider, the customer can save time and can more accurately communicate information on the service required and the service provider can save time and money.
The use of a communication line for a customer at the point of drop-off of an item for a service transaction is known in the prior art such as in Lohrey et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,803,348 that describes a system for automating laundry or dry cleaning services. In this disclosure a telephone system was available at the time of drop-off of the clothing items in order to discuss problems, complaints and special requests; however this approach may require a person to be available to receive the telephone calls or if a message is recorded during non-business hours there may be a longer delay before receipt of the message by the service provider and there is no confirmation from the service provider that the message was received. The Lohrey et al. patent also fails to disclose any further communication for additional information or notification to the customer at the completion of the services.